Bancrofts harden against Murdoch, reports WSJ

Rupert Murdoch's chances of clinching the $5bn (£2.5bn) takeover of the Wall Street Journal owner Dow Jones appear to be waning in the face of opposition from many of the company's custodians.

One member of the 35-strong Bancroft family, which owns a controlling stake in Dow Jones, even invoked the memory of murdered journalist Daniel Pearl in voicing her opposition to the deal, the Wall Street Journal reported today.

At a meeting of the family on Monday to discuss Mr Murdoch's offer, 77-year-old Jane Cox MacElree reportedly grew emotional as she said mentioned how Mr Pearl, killed by kidnappers in Pakistan five years ago, had "put his life on the line" for the paper.

Ms MacElree is the daughter of late Bancroft matriarch Jessie Bancroft Cox, and is one of three trustees controlling a 15% chunk of Dow Jones's voting power.

She is also the mother of Leslie Hill, a Dow Jones board director who indicated her opposition to the Murdoch takeover at Monday's meeting by waving a manila envelope filled with the protest letters from Journal staff.

Between them, the Bancroft family owns 64% of the Dow Jones voting shares, of which Mr Murdoch's News Corporation is thought to need almost half if its bid is to succeed.

News Corp has already secured the backing of Dow Jones's board of directors, who recommended the deal to shareholders last week.

However, many of the Bancrofts are culturally opposed to his approach, and their mood seems to have hardened, according to the Journal.

The paper said it has interviewed 12 Bancrofts and reported that the outcome of the process - always seen as on a knife-edge but with Mr Murdoch more likely to prevail than not - was now "increasingly in doubt".

More doubts had emerged at the end of the six-hour meeting on Monday at a Boston hotel, the Journal added.

A final decision by the Bancrofts could come by the end of the week.

The Bancroft shares are held in more than 100 trusts, making it harder to forecast the outcome of the momentous vote.

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